Aug. 29, 2017
07:01 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
07:05 am JST

That seemed to be a rather provocative missile launch that flew right over Japanese territory. Why they didn't shoot it down baffles me. They had every right to do so. Missed opportunity if you ask me. Now L'il Kim thinks he can use the other side of Hokkaido as his personal shooting range, and knows that Japan will do nothing but issue alerts.

Aug. 29, 2017
07:37 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
07:45 am JST

Japan's military is a joke, and how Abe is going to protect the people when he let the missile go through his living room and doing nothing about it, and telling people to be precautious while sleeping early morning. Gutted......Well, Japan become Kim's playground from now on.

Aug. 29, 2017
08:01 am JST

The Constitution is going to be revised and there won't be a word about it. Why? Because the state of the planet demands it. With the meteoric rise of China, Japan realizes that a few years down the road,they won't be the big dogs in east Asia. The failure to accept the age old fact that there are no perpetual empires is what's going to inevitably lead to the decimation of this rock we call home. Hold onto your cups!!

Aug. 29, 2017
08:11 am JST

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday he would do all in his power to protect the Japanese public. "We will make utmost efforts to firmly protect the lives of the people," Abe told reporters in brief remarks as he entered his office for emergency meetings on the missile firing.

And here's how:

adding the government had protested the move in the strongest terms.

and

The Japanese government's J-Alert warning system advised people in the area to take precautions.

Aug. 29, 2017
08:16 am JST

We go through the same boring useless rigmarole every time. "We protest strongly, we don't allowed this, we will protest to the UN" etc etc etc. We ie the rest of the planet, can do totally nothing about Kim's actions. He is free to enjoy playing around with his missiles as long as he wants. We will not risk nuclear war and the end of planet Earth.

Aug. 29, 2017
08:18 am JST

This is a very serious escalation. Past overflights were before North Korea had nukes. Little Kim is a lunatic. Could you imagine what might have happened had that missile malfunctioned over Hokkaido! I don't know this for a fact of course but Japan may not have tried to shoot down the overflying missile because they likely didn't expect a launch to the north and had no anti-missile units stationed up there.

Aug. 29, 2017
08:25 am JST

However, the technology is still unproven. We don't know how effective missile defence will be in practice.

Going back to the first Gulf war, Israel did an analysis of the performance of the American Patriot missiles against Iraqi Scuds and concluded that the Patriots were almost completely ineffective. Now you can argue that American tech has come on in the last 25 years or so, but so has North Korea's!

Aug. 29, 2017
08:26 am JST

Dango Bong, My alert came to my iphone at 6:02, which was 4 minutes after it was launched, so the missile was noticed pretty quickly. Another alert came as we were having breakfast to say it had passed over Japan and was heading out to sea.

Aug. 29, 2017
08:27 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
08:36 am JST

My alert came to my iphone at 6:02, which was 4 minutes after it was launched, so the missile was noticed pretty quickly. Another alert came as we were having breakfast to say it had passed over Japan and was heading out to sea.

And the Japanese government is advising people to go out and seek shelter! What a joke. With the flight time being as short as it is, you would barely have enough time to put your head between your legs and kiss your * goodbye let alone escape!

'Masahisa Sato, senior vice minister for foreign affairs, tweeted last week that it would be “difficult” to shoot them down if the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Aegis destroyers, equipped with SM-3 anti-missile defense systems, were deployed in the Sea of Japan.'

Aug. 29, 2017
08:57 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
09:02 am JST

People need to stop confusing their dislike for Abe and the LDP as the same thing as a NK threat on Japan.

They just shot a missile over my country, which I take to be a grave threat. It is in effect saying "watch your back, we wanna bomb you and your people".

Of course politicians will use fear mongering and twist the truth, but if you spread the nonsense that the LDP are elated about this since it will take the burden off of Abe's scandal....well who's reaching here?

Aug. 29, 2017
09:23 am JST

@thepersoniamnow: LDP are not elated because this is a distraction. But this does, indeed, serve their interests as it allows them to push for increased military spending and scrapping a pacifist constitution.

Aug. 29, 2017
09:29 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
09:33 am JST

Regarding shooting down the missile, as others have noted, it would be almost impossible to hit with current anti-missiles systems. Probably the S. Korean based THAAD would have the best capability.

And why did NK choose such a flight path? Well in all reality if you're going to be belligerent and show agressive power, but don't want to actually destroy anything (???), you'd choose the least problematic course. Over land to the west etc is of course out of bounds, which is why the recent lobbing of missiles into the Sea of Japan is the course of less impact - ie no land. Firing anywhere to the south, south east (China, Korea, Taiwan Japan), east (Honshu and high population), greater north west (Russian territory) would have the greatest risk if anything went wrong. Firing across the bow of Hokkaido probably minimizes the chance of real-time damage, while retaining the highest level of "scare factor".

There is probably nothing anyone can do re this except China, who has the ability to punish NK with severe economic restrictions and political pressure. Perhaps Russia too.

And I do believe there are some Hawks in the ldp who believe this is a timely godsend to further redirect resources from other areas into the military budget hence boosting their rightousness and directly adding billions to the Big Industrial Military Complex. And of course it will deflect attention away from the lies and criminal activities of corrupt practices now under the spotlight. More than a few politicians, bureacrats etc will be sighing a "TFG" for that.

Aug. 29, 2017
09:33 am JST

@matthewsimon: The U.S. having a massive military presence in northeast Asia and routinely conducting military drills is not provocation?

When the Soviet Union attempted to put nuclear missiles in Cuba the American reaction brought the world to the brink of war. Imagine if China, or North Korea, or Russia, had an equivalent military buildup near the American coast and frequently flew bombers within sight of the coast.

Aug. 29, 2017
09:35 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
09:36 am JST

Calm down people. Like most people my first reaction was, why did they not shoot it down ? But if they did, then what ? We go to war, for what? Loss of innocent life is never worth it. Missiles are fast by the time it is detected it could be over a populated area, the debris will cause more damage. I agree with one of the posts, take out the fat little guy in his own area.

What is even more amazing to me, and one I see not logical reason are American tourists flocking to go to North Korea before the tourist ban is in place. WHY ?????

Aug. 29, 2017
10:02 am JST

This is a very serious escalation. Past overflights were before North Korea had nukes. Little Kim is a lunatic. Could you imagine what might have happened had that missile malfunctioned over Hokkaido! I don't know this for a fact of course but Japan may not have tried to shoot down the overflying missile because they likely didn't expect a launch to the north and had no anti-missile units stationed up there.

Not trying to take from your point, but I'm pretty sure he's not loading these missiles with nuclear material and wasting it into the ocean. It's likey just an empty shell.

Aug. 29, 2017
10:23 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
10:24 am JST

It's been well documented that the chances of shooting down a missile launched from the DPRK are very slim. It takes 15 minutes from launch to impact, which means they have 8 minutes to intercept it over the Japan sea. That's something about the size of an electricity pole flying at 10,000ft and doing 800kph. Even with the latest targeting technology it's nearly impossible. It's like trying to shoot a pea travelling at 800kph from 500 yards with a BB gun.

The UN sanctions do not work. They only make li'l Kim more determined and further hurt the impoverished people of the DPRK. Killing him and his military leaders would result in 'big brother' China getting extremely peeved and putting its 300 million people strong military into retaliatory action. The only answer is get this spoiled little brat into negotiations and for all countries concerned to create some kind of peaceful compromise, which is probably more difficult than shooting down a missile.

Aug. 29, 2017
10:35 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
10:38 am JST

Not trying to take from your point, but I'm pretty sure he's not loading these missiles with nuclear material and wasting it into the ocean. It's likey just an empty shell.

Not to nitpick but it will have had a dummy warhead (I hope). Given the high density of housing in Japan and the kinetic energy stored in a hypersonic missile, I'd not be surprised if it razed half a block upon impact.

Aug. 29, 2017
10:58 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
10:58 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
11:04 am JST

Every year since the cease fire in the war with the United States of America and allies the same jingoistic celebrations in Democratic People's Republic of Korea roll out. Banging the metaphorical kerosene cans^, and creating internal and external newsworthy events. The fact this grows more threatening every year has more to do with matching any geopolitical noise created in North America.

The pattern is set, expect the same next year, and depending on any political posturing, there may be more.

**Foundation of the Korean People's Army Strategic Force on 3 July 1999. *

**Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War 27 July *

**End of the Korean War in 1953, 15 August Liberation Day Established after the liberation of Korea in 1945 *

Day of Songun, on 25 August, 1960 is seen by the DPRK as the "start of the Songun revolutionary leadership" *

** Foundation Dayof the DPRK on the 9 September *

____

^ Jane Goodall's 'Mike the alpha male chimpanzee', with the kero cans, creating a lot of noise and fear: http://www.chimpanzoo.org/african_notecards/chapter_21.html

Aug. 29, 2017
11:12 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
11:18 am JST

The missile was at least 550 Km over most of Hokkaido - most likely over the ceiling height of a standard PAC-3 missile, which why probably wasn't shot down. Also, the US military and the Japan SDF were already conducting war games in Hokkaido while this occurred, and I'm sure they deemed the live-missile launch from North Korea as a non-threat to Japanese territory - so why waste billions of Yen of tax-payer money on target practice?

Aug. 29, 2017
11:19 am JST

God, missile day again don't want to watch the 24-hour news about some countries threatening behaviour to NK.I want to know about what's happening about the Abe scandals and the who will be the next prime minister.

Aug. 29, 2017
11:32 am JST

What happened to all those people laughing at "Crazy Kim up to his old antics again? Oh, how cute of him trying to make a missile, no way will he get anywhere with it!" Who could have thought that it could come to this, and the worst part is that this is nowhere near the end!

Aug. 29, 2017
11:39 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
11:44 am JST

do you guys really believe what media tells you?lol kim and dangerous ..... you gotta be kidding.

He's endangering his own people and the region by his reckless actions. But then, this is also typical of the DPKR over the last 60 years. Provocations, multiple agencies never working in tandem, internal power struggles, hawks and doves, a desperation to be seen as a world power etc.

And having Trump as his equally irrational counterpart does not help matters.

Aug. 29, 2017
11:46 am JST

@thepersoniamnow - ACTUALLY it's been well documented that it is possible to shoot down a missile with many counter missiles

It is possible to shoot down a DPRK missile from mainland US because they have an hour to do so. However, Japan has less than 8 minutes to shoot down a missile while it's over the Japan sea, which is nearly impossible. Read it again!

Aug. 29, 2017
11:48 am JST

Thank you Kim Jong Un for making the yen stronger.

But you wonder if William Mallard and Jack Kim have even heard of Ulchi Freedom Guardian. You know, the war games being carried out right now on North Korea's border involving 50,000 South Korean and 17,500 U.S. troops, practicing for an invasion of NK. Hmmm, I wonder if this bit of information is important for putting the above article in context.

Aug. 29, 2017
11:54 am JST

Aug. 29, 2017
12:04 pm JST

The window for appeasement and sanctions has slammed shut and the full blame and responsibility for the outcome lies firmly with the Pyongyang dictatorship of Kim Jong-un and the strike must be ruthless, unequivocal and decisive

Aug. 29, 2017
12:04 pm JST

How did Pawn Minister Abe protect Japan? He was given 5 years and he wasted every minutes of it. The only way to protect Japan is working with China and have friendly talk with NKorea. But Abe did everything possible to antagonize China. Is it his way to protect Japanese people?

Now Abe and his Joke defense minister demanded Japanese people to pay $5 trillions for military protection. Give me the money and I will buy NKorea out and have a peaceful East Asia once for all.

Aug. 29, 2017
12:07 pm JST

"The Constitution is going to be revised and there won't be a word about it. Why? Because the state of the planet demands it.

Speaking like a true Starship Trooper Sky-Marshal,

The Japanese government's J-Alert system broke into radio and TV programming, warning citizens of the possible missile. Bullet train services were temporarily halted and warnings went out over loudspeakers in towns in Hokkaido.

"I was woken by the missile alert on my cell phone," said Ayaka Nishijima, 41, an office worker from Morioka, the capital of Iwate prefecture, 300 km (180 miles) south of Cape Erimo.

"I didn’t feel prepared at all. Even if we get these alerts there’s nowhere to run. It’s not like we have a basement or bomb shelter, all we can do is get away from the window," she told Reuters by text message.

Japan did not shoot down the missile ahead passing Japan because the government would prefer to play the victim card in every situation but also I suspect they probably clearly identified the trajectory would not hit Japan land, Japan protesting is of course normal but issuing the useless scary alert on the population, with no protection to offer anyway, is just a political attempt to use that threat for pushing national agenda.

Aug. 29, 2017
12:19 pm JST

Aug. 29, 2017
12:20 pm JST

OK thinking outside the box here...build a wall around NK.....oops too expensive, then build a gigantic driving range net around the place......lots of Japanese companies are experts at these....the bomb will bounce back into NK

Aug. 29, 2017
12:21 pm JST

This is EXACTLY what I said would happen when Japan increased sanctions and started joining in the war games. How is that "extra pressure" going, Abe? because it seems the only pressure you've put is on people here, and on yourself to go around begging for more help.

Go back to the table and start talking. That's the ONLY way to calm down the regime for the moment. It's too late to do anything else.

Aug. 29, 2017
12:46 pm JST

Aug. 29, 2017
12:50 pm JST

No Political Leader of the G20 has never experienced the threat or consequences war, let alone the extreme losses and ramifications of all out war and the possible exchange of strategic and tactical atomic/nuclear weapons .

However a small and ever diminishing group of wise ageing Japanese pensioners have.

Japan needs leadership that will stand firm and react decisively, or else many more towns an cities will be at risk/threat of annihilation far more devastating than Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

It is time to call upon the United States to defend the people of Japan if necessary with full military action and for the SDF to be equipped to stand alongside their US comrades who are prepared to defend Japan with their lives.

Hi smithinjapan, you are correct, however Pyongyang will not back off until every US forward command base is removed from the region. Which under current circumstances is inconceivable.

Aug. 29, 2017
01:59 pm JST

Aug. 29, 2017
02:04 pm JST

This sob is not going to stop until he gets us all blown up! NK is one of the world's largest possessors of chemical weapons, ranking third after the United States and Russia. Seems he is really itching for someone to attack. I'm sure the whole country is booby trapped!

Aug. 29, 2017
02:06 pm JST

Now this is a real threat. Even though it was heading their way, neither Japan nor USA even tried to take it down. It means, they are defenseless. Now Abe is going to triple the defense ministry budget. And no one will object to him.

Aug. 29, 2017
02:14 pm JST

clamenza: "Smithinjapan - your solution is to show NK that their bellicose behaviour should be rewarded out of fear. No thanks."

Not rewarded, and not out of fear. But please, do tell us, what the "punishments" have done. Thanks to Abe, Trump, and other hardliners saying they will double down on sanctions and refusing dialogue, North Korea has already won. They are continually defiant regardless of how many times Abe says he's "Getting tough" and "increasing pressure", and now look at him run around again asking the US, the UN, and China for help. Does he look like a big tough guy winning? Not at all, my friend. Had Nationalism not been Abe's agenda from the get go, which sunk relations with NK when they peaked under Koizumi, they might have gotten far more by now. Instead, they're going to have to go back to the table knowing they have handed NK even more.

Dialogue's the only way to go, bud, and you know it. Deny it and talk tough all you like while NK just makes you look even sillier, there is nothing else you would actually do besides talk. Nothing.

Aug. 29, 2017
04:24 pm JST

N. Korean has speeding up upgrading its missile capability while the US, Japan and S. Korea waiting for sanction to work on N. Korean regime. It’s foolish game. The more they wait the more N. Korean regime get advance missile system.

N. Korean regime won’t back down and agree to any demand by UN and US, Japan and S. Korean Government.

The US, Japan and S. Korean Government must decide about N. Korea matter and they must not waste the time.

Aug. 29, 2017
07:02 pm JST

so why waste billions of Yen of tax-payer money on target practice?

For the same reason you warm up before doing sports. You don't want to get into action with your muscles being cold, so you have to be sure they get warmed up for optimal performance. Should the interceptors never get tested, how would anybody know if corrections need to be made and what would they be if any? At the same time, Japan really needs to send a clear message that no one screws with them.

Sep. 1, 2017
04:27 pm JST

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should do something worthwhile for a change. Stop digging up and exporting Uraium. Number two he should put more pressure on China to make North Korea comply. If not stop sending China Coal and Beef.